UFC Fight Night 8: Josh Burkman Faces ";The Cut";

The past few days have been a circus as I try to juggle my regular full-time job (yes, I have one) with MMAjunkie.com duties, some pending interviews and, of course, our sponsorship of Sean Salmon (9-1 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who faces an extremely tough test in Rashad Evans (9-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC) at Thursday’s UFC Fight Night 8 main event.

Bitching about my problems, though, seems rather pathetic when you consider what guys like Salmon, Evans and even Josh Burkman (7-3 MMA, 3-1 UFC) are now facing, 48 hours before their fights.

Lost in this week’s avalanche of news has been Burkman’s upcoming fight with UFC newcomer Chad Reiner (13-1 MMA, 0-0) on Thursday’s undercard. I’m an unabashed Burkman fan and took a liking to the Team Quest member the moment he upset Melvin Guillard in the first fight of The Ultimate Fighter’s second season. He seems like a fairly no-nonsense and level-headed guy, and I find it easy to root for fighters like that.

“The People’s Warrior” (maybe we should all make some suggestions for a new nickname) just posted an update from down in Florida as he prepares for his fight, and it sounds like the welterweight has some work ahead of him.

Couple weeks ago I was 190, sunday I was 183, today I woke up 179…. Gotta drop 9lbs tomorrow by weigh-ins… 170, Ill put up some pics of my skinny ass after weigh-ins tomorrow…

I got all your messages and comments, thanks for all the support!!

JBurk “peoples warrior’

Jeesh. I just hope he’s got something left in the tank come fight time. Then again, these guys are professionals and should be used to the drastic weight cut. And despite his opponent’s impressive record, Burkman enters the fight a 4-to-1 favorite.

If he were to win this fight (and when taking into consideration his previous wins over Sam Morgan, Drew Fickett and Josh Neer), Burkman really should gain some traction as a legitimate contender in an otherwise-stacked welterweight division.

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?